The EU executive will provide 1 billion euros (1.07 billion USD) to help rebuild in Turkey, the head of the European Commission said on Monday in launching an international conference to drum up help following a devastating earthquake there last month.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the quake killed about 50,000 people in Turkey and neighboring Syria, the most enormous natural disaster in the region in years.
Millions are now homeless and living in tents as the winter drags on.
We need to mobilize for reconstruction. Homes and schools and hospitals must be rebuilt, with the highest standards of seismic safety.
Water and sanitation and other critical infrastructure must be repaired. Public services and businesses need capital to restart, so that people can earn a living.”
President Ursula von der Leyen told in conference.
EU head said the Commission would spend a further 108 million euros on humanitarian aid and early recovery in Syria, where the European Union does not have diplomatic relations with President Bashar al-Assad over a war that had started in 2011.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimated the “total financial burden of the earthquake disaster” for Turkey at some $103.6 billion and said that amounted to 9 percent of the country’s GDP forecast for 2023.
